According to a recent report put together by the Baymard Institute, an independent web research company, 67% of online shopping carts are abandoned. That means that 67% of web shoppers looked around your site, picked out one or more things they liked enough to save into a cart, and then just...didn't buy them. Why not?

The four main reasons online browsers don't make that online purchase include:

1.Taxes and Shipping. Shipping just bumped a $29.99 purchase up to $41.50. The total price is too much. Bye-bye, customer.

2.Buyer’s Remorse. Shopping around and putting things in your cart is a guilt-free pleasure. But once you see everything you picked out, a sense of regret can…

Amazon had 900 million visits Christmas 2014, 1.3 Christmas 2015, and have regularly cracked the 1 billion visitor mark every month this year (as of May 2016). Let that number sink in. That’s 3x the population of the United States. The giant of retail, Wal-Mart only has 240 million visits a month. Target? 140 million. Grainger (for you B2B manufacturers)? 7 million. And Amazon visitors are buying. Amazon holiday sales will likely be up 20-25% over Q4 last year. That’s a decade of double digit YoY holiday sales growth (in case anyone’s counting :) And its not just the US - we see this growth in UK, Europe, and Canada.

What's their secret? They key for any manufacturer or publisher to understand, is that Amazon’s success IS NOT simply due to the products Amazon buys and sells online. That’s only one part of it.

Now that “the internet” has widely become considered a mature and stable sales channel, a small percentage of the more daring manufacturers and publishers are actually considering cashing out on catalogs and going “all in” online. The theory is, that customers only want to shop online and catalogs are costly and time-consuming paper weights that just end up in the old circular file.

As an online strategist, you might think that Yeoman would be encouraging this line of thinking. But you’d be wrong. We firmly believe that offline and online efforts need to complement each other. The question should not be "offline vs. online," but "are you where the customer wants to buy from you?"

These days, customers think of a “store” as both online and offline and will continue to migrate to the players that make it easy for…

The Yeoman team is pleased to announce the 7th update to its Website Best Practice Scorecard. Now in it's seventh year, the scorecard let's manufacturer's and brands compare their websites against 121 Best Practices across multiple industries.

Manufacturers and publishers have a unique challenge with websites. Their sites have to combine sales, operations, marketing, support, and channel programs. These have to be organized and easy-to-follow for customers and partners. Plus they have to be 'consumer friendly' and keep up with the latest trends in devices and behavior.

The scorecard was created by Yeoman Technology Group based on an extensive review of the top 500 websites of manufacturers, content/course providers, and publishers. This primary research was then combined with usability…

Snow days typically evoke cheers from kids and groans from your retail partners. Bad driving, no foot traffic, and limited staff mean yesterday's big blizzard was likely a bust for revenue except for e-commerce. Superstorm Juno may have crushed the malls, but it made online sales jump in almost every category.

Yeoman analyzed the "storm day" online activity and performance results of 125,000 client products across multiple markets including B2C, B2B, and Education segments. We also analyzed performance of these items on Amazon. The comparison was simple - how did year over year sales compare on the storm days this year versus last year. Last years days were cold but there were no major storms in the East coast.

Some of the results are pretty obvious, but there are a few surprises. Traffic and revenue to B2B sites and B2B…

The recovering economy may make many brands think the painful digital shift they’ve been undergoing in their channels will subside as traditional retail, wholesale, outside, and catalog sales get a lift with a stronger economy. They'd be wrong.
While a stronger economy will help all sales, this recovery will likely see its biggest boost in digital channels – everything from direct sales and drop ships to social commerce and Amazon domination.
There's plenty for a brand to do in 2018, but here are 5 trends you should be acting on now.
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Are you ready to “wow” your customers and edge out the competition in 2018? With a dizzying array of channels and marketing tools, it can be hard to know what to focus on. We here at Yeoman recommend you focus on these 6 growing trends.
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Groupon may have started life as an online coupon site, but most of its growth and revenue is due to their discount goods business, which launched in 2011. Five years and nearly $2 billion USD in goods revenue later, the company is ready to take on the world of ecommerce mega giants like Amazon, eBay, Sears, Buy.com and Jet—just to name a few.
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There’s a lot for a manufacturer to learn from companies like Radio Shack, Colt’s Manufacturing, and Quick Sliver clothing—all of them many decades-old manufacturing companies that filed for bankruptcy protection within the last few months.
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Amazon has just rolled out the full version of Brand Central to all sellers in North America, but with very little fanfare and even less information. Yeoman has already enrolled several brands. Here's why this should be a priority for your team.
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A new study by BloomReach has found that 55% of all consumers begin their product searches on Amazon. If you’re not on Amazon, it’s time to get on Amazon. If you’re on Amazon, it’s time to up your game.
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As of June 2016, the average consumer spent at least $1,800 per year online. Social media outlets are still trying out new ways to get a piece of that very big pie, and Facebook is no exception. Here’s what to expect this year and into the future.
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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner, so it’s time for manufacturers to do a prep-double check. Most manufacturers are thinking "my job is done, it's all up to retail and my partners". Think again. Today original manufacturers can make a major impact on holiday sales - regardless of whether you sell direct or not.

It’s not too late! There are still a few key things you can do to help boost holiday sales.

1. Make sure your main website is ready for prime time

A recent study found that 65% of shoppers visit a manufacturer's direct website to research a product prior to purchase. Your website needs to present your products in a clear, salable, format—whether you take sales or not.

Thanksgiving comes extra late this year (on the 27th) which means there are only 26 shopping days between Black Friday and Christmas Eve. That’s almost an entire week less than 2013, when retailers had a luxurious 31 days to woo shoppers. Now, harried holiday shoppers will have to accomplish all their gift buying in 4 weekends instead of 5.

That time crunch will put extra pressure on manufacturers and publishers to get products into the pipeline early, and may prompt retailers to start running their holiday ads even earlier than usual. According to an Experian Marketing Services survey of marketing executives’ cross-channel marketing plans, 49% of retailers will launch their holiday campaigns before Halloween.

Google has confirmed it - a Buy Button is “imminent.” The button is expected to be rolled out on mobile devices, and will enable people who click on product ads in search results to buy those products without navigating to a third-party site. The button, following similar moves by Facebook and Twitter, are a significant departure for the search giant, which has built its business based on ads that link to other websites.

"The rationale is to reduce friction for customers'" said Omid Kordestani, Google’s Chief Business Officer, "making it simpler to complete online purchases." Trust us, there's another reason - Google is facing significant competition from Amazon and others when it comes to people searching for products and has been steadily moving to be more "direct." Recent examples include:

Just Do It - living your motto. Can a manufacturer sell direct and not kill their channel? It's a question every manufacturer or publisher asks in every industry You've heard all the objections:

It will cause too much conflict with our existing channelWe can't fulfill small ordersWe won't be able to generate any salesIt will cost too much

Nike had the same questions too, but dug in and took their own logo to heart. They started a 'direct model' a few years ago; combining online and a retail presence to engage customers directly. Stores are hard; but online clothing is one of the toughest ecommerce transactions to support; size, color, and fit all require…

March 20, 2015: This week was a very rough one for manufacturers and their relationship with Amazon. Amazon announced they will be ending the 'Amazon Webstore' service in July 2016. Many people may not realize that Amazon offered a private label web hosting, but Yeoman estimates they host almost 2,000 sites. Many of these sites are original manufacturers like Fiskars, Cuda, Black and Decker, Eclipse, Lacoste, Remmington, Sesame Street, and Isaac Mizrahi to name a few.

For a manufacturer, the appeal was clear: A world class hosting platform that uses the exact same product data they have to create to be successful on Amazon. Amazon leads B2B and B2C when it comes to product details online, an area…